In recent years, the use of bed rails has received increased scrutiny from the health care community and regulators. There have been many reports of death and injury, such as entrapment, falls, and asphyxiation, due to bed rail use. Between Jan. 1, 1985, and Jan. 1, 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received 901 incident reports of patients caught, trapped, entangled, or strangled in hospital beds, including 531 deaths.

In January, the FDA, working in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), developed a new webpage that provides guidance about bed rail use. The guidance addresses bed rail safety, safety concerns about bed rails, and recommendations for health care providers, consumers, and caregivers about bed rails. Among the information available is clinical guidance to assess an individual patient’s needs when using a bed rail and a bed safety entrapment kit containing information and tools that can be used to assess entrapment risk.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) also has information on its website to assist nursing homes with bed safety. The CDPHE has pointed out the risks of using restraints such as bed rails. The risk of bed rails include falls caused by climbing over the rails, becoming trapped between the bed rail and mattress, which can result in asphyxiation, and fracture from rolling into the transfer rails.

The FDA cautions that health care providers should avoid the routine use of bed rails and that bed rails should not be used as a substitute for proper monitoring, especially for people at high risk of entrapment. Likewise, the CDPHE encourages the use of alternatives before using bed rails, such as lowered beds, futons, or waterbeds.

Nursing homes often run into conflict with family members who request bed rails. However, nursing homes cannot use family requests to justify using bed rails. Surveyor guidance emphasizes that the legal surrogate or representative cannot give permission to use restraints for the sake of discipline or staff convenience when the restraint is not necessary to treat the resident’s medical condition. In other words, the facility cannot use restraints in violation of 42 C.F.R. § 483.13(a) solely based on a family member’s request or approval.

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